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Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Changing our minds as well as our dress size...

I hear it all the time nowadays.

“I know I should feed my family more healthy meals… but I’m just so BUSY!” or the “I have a bunch of kids and it’s too expensive to buy fresh fruit and veggies… the bags of processed food and “gogurts” is sooo much more economical and fast for me…as long as they eat… and it has milk and some protein in it… my kids will be fine”, and my personal favorite… “Oh, I’m not a cook like you… and I have a job…blah, blah, blah”

I didn’t get fat by eating only unhealthy foods. I ate well… lots of fruits, veggies, and breads… just at the wrong times, and with a lot of “convenience” foods thrown in for good measure.

It was so much easier and faster to go through a drive thru and get some marinated chicken and tortillas for dinner. It was way more convenient to pull a tub of ice cream out of the freezer for a quick dessert for the family. We ate fruit all the time… and we’ve always eaten way more vegetables than the average family… but other food choices were sabotaging any good that could come from eating well. One good thing, coupled with one bad thing… kept things status quo. Nothing changed… but my weight… upwards…

Ever since I first became pregnant, I became a cook. From conception, I knew I wanted my kids to eat cleanly, and fresh. It’s how I grew up. My oldest son was 5 before he ever tasted a hot dog. Now I wish I had never, ever, ever, given him or my other kids any of that garbage. I got a lot of flack and a lot of “Oh, well, of course you cook for your kids, you don’t have to work and you are home all day long… so you have the time…” What they failed to realize was that I also ran two home businesses, and had three kids under 5… my time was not my own. So I succombed to the stigma of being an At Home Mama, and started doing things the way most of the other Mom’s in the Playgroup were doing… for a few minutes…

Then I saw my kids complexion, and their teeth, and their overall disposition change, and I quickly went back to cooking and making fresh food. My children have never had a weight problem. I did to my body, what I did, all by myself. I wanted better for my kids.

They have never eaten a “school meal” (their schools are private, and don’t have those programs anyway) but they have always taken their lunch to school. To this day, my 16 year old has his lunch made fun of… because it is full of homemade breads, veggies, fruit and no processed foods… and he loves it… and even welcomes the opportunity to share his yummy lunch and “turn them around”.

We need to change our own minds about food, so it will trickle down to our children too. We need to get back into the kitchen. We need to make mealtime an event. We need to stop shopping the convenience food aisle and see that we are killing ourselves and our kids.

“My kids are healthy, and not overweight, so those foods aren’t hurting them at all”… I hear that all the time, on TV, at the store between two Mom’s talking, in my own family. I am here to tell you… just because your kids aren’t overweight now, and aren’t ill now… doesn’t mean they are getting all the nutrition they require for a long healthy life. As I’ve said before… sugar LOVES Cancer, and sugar is in EVERYTHING processed. All those chemicals, and by products of what once was food, are being Genetically Modified to make ‘FOOD LIKE” substances that taste good, require virtually no cooking time, and can stay on a shelf almost indefinitely. When a “cheese” food product doesn’t need to be refrigerated… WORRY!

“But Sandra, we aren’t home, and we aren’t chef’s like you… we don’t have the time to do these things!!!” YES. YOU. DO!!! We all MAKE TIME for all the things we deem important. We make time for manicures, movies, TV watching, practices, music lessons, going out to dinner etc…

WE NEED TO MAKE TIME TO PREPARE HEALTHY FOOD FOR OUR FAMILIES. Their very LIVES depend on it.

You are all good parents. You want the BEST for your kids, in every way. You want them to succeed in life, stay off drugs, not smoke, go to college, get married, have children, lead productive fulfilling lives… TEACHING THE BEST FOOD HABITS is vital to all of that happening. It JUST IS! What we set forth in our own homes now, as far as food rules and dietary guidelines, WILL STAY WITH OUR CHILDREN when they are older. They may stray in the beginning and eat all the forbidden things for a bit, but when they see their bodies morph into something they don’t want… they will have the tools necessary to fight the good fight and get back on track.

Nutrition information is KEY to success in health. Knowing what is in our food… what causes inflammation, what causes cravings, what chemicals are creating disease, what ISN’T real food, what the names of the food-like substances are, and to avoid them… IS KEY!

We need to change our MINDS.. and not only worry about our SIZE. There are a lot of unhealthy, undernourished NORMAL WEIGHT people out there… and there are a lot of unhealthy, UNDER nourished heavy people out there… volumes of food, does not make for nutrition… and being skinny doesn’t make one healthy either.

If we do nothing else, we should at least be cooking one meal a day, from our own refrigerators, that does not come from a box or bag. We should be cooking from things that don’t have nutritional information printed on the box… just an annoying sticker to take off before we wash it.

Join me in a Food Revolution of our own. Be proactive in your kitchen… and start cooking food that FEEDS every cell in our bodies, instead of just satiating hunger. Buy and eat the rainbow. Look at beans as little nibbles of meat. Make your own salad dressings… or buy mine… LOL! Olive Oil and vinegar are AWESOME on salad… Add a can of tuna for protein… or salmon.